The 43rd Heir and the Maiden
by a.paradigm
Summary: short stories revolving around the relationship of Ren Tao and Iron Maiden Jeanne. hope you enjoy. (R&R)
1. Magnetic

**_a/n: don't own Shaman King._**

* * *

 _\- Magnetic -_

He was always very well-dressed.

She wasn't going to kid herself though. She honestly had no idea what the difference between a regular store-bought suit and a tailored suit was, but if she was going to take a guess, the ones he wore were definitely designed for him specifically, complete with shiny cuff links, and silk tie.

He could have been mistaken for yakuza if it weren't for the time frame in which she had first encountered him. Right before it got too chilly out, he had walked into the convenient store that evening with no suit coat, white collared shirt with the sleeves rolled up with the first two buttons undone, black suit pants, and shiny black shoes. And his long hair which he usually kept free-flowing or in a ponytail was then tied into a lengthy french braid which he had swung over his left shoulder. She immediately saw that he wasn't covered in tattoos like the normal cliche gangster, so malevolent activity encircling his life was simply laid to rest in her mind. He was quite the sight, but just didn't seem like a bad person.

But the expensive car he drove just raised bigger questions that she was in no way within a position to ask. She was only given the luxury of spectating from the other side of the cash register as he made his way through the store.

He was tall, walked with authority, and his yellow, garnet-like eyes were set like a hawk's, only lying their gaze on the items he meant to retrieve as soon as he walked into the store, which were very few and common items to put it frankly. The two-to-three-times-a-month he showed up, he only got a few small items like some chewing gum, a carton of milk, or melon bread, and aside from other small things, that usually was the general consensus of what he'd purchase.

She figured he stopped at the store either on his way home from work, or on his way to work.

Either way, he caught the attention of every passer-by. Women silently and fondly swooned over him and men admired him and as time progressed, rumors began to spread amongst the frequent goers of the store and her co-workers about this mysterious young man.

"I think he must be an actor." the chattiest of her associates would usually state her opinion first to get the conversation started. "What do you think Jeanne? You work the cash register, so you have the most chances of speaking to him. Did you ask him anything? Say something interesting to you at all?"

She never spoke up about the matter, keeping much of her opinion to herself given that her exchanges with him were always so brief. But from what she could tell, he was very precise, almost robotic in his mannerisms, placing his purchase in a small assembly so it would be easy for her to access on the counter so she could place them in a bag for him. And during the entire transaction, he would lock eyes with her, never disengaging, not even while reached to grab his wallet and take out his black credit card. She would naturally have to look away to place all his belongings in their appropriate spots in the plastic bag, but when she looked back, he was there still, wide-eyed and endearing. She would then smile and thank him for his purchase with a slight bow.

And the moment that would always make her heart skip a beat was the smile she received in return. It was almost wily in presentation and the soft "No, thank you", he'd say as he stepped away from the register and out the store was almost uni-directional, intended for her ears only.

She couldn't help but feel a...little drawn to him.

Maybe that's why she did what did when she saw him again.

* * *

It was a rainy Tuesday night and traffic in the store was much slower than usual. So much so that her supervisor dismissed everyone but herself and one other co-worker to man the shoppe for the evening until closing.

It wasn't long into her shift that he came walking into the store, lightly fanning the rain off his black over-coat. By the time he had shown up, no one else was in the store, so she found her eyes following him more intently.

"Welcome." She said it with more intended clarity.

He turned to her not stopping, on his way towards the drinks aisle and smiled. "Hello."

It was the first out of taciturn thing he had ever said to her.

It wasn't because he was rude to her prior, but there really wasn't anything needed or expected between a sales associate and a customer other than a greeting and a slight nod to acknowledge the gesture. And given how precise she had duly noted on how he'd been in the past, to purposely greet her ignited something that convinced her to test the less than shallow waters of their fabricated association.

Maybe she was being delusional. But it was too late to turn back now. She had already prepared herself mentally.

When he made his way to the counter and placed his purchase on the counter, she remarked a little more playful than usual. "Just tea today?"

The impression donning his face evolved into a wry grin,"You sound a little disappointed."

"Just surprised is all. Normally, I see you grabbing the closest milk carton and sometime a box of cigarettes."

He lulled over the response in a whimsy-like fashion, leaning his weight onto the counter with one arm. "Kinda interesting you'd take into account what I purchase, don't you think?"

She retorted back slyly, "Well, you have your own routine when you come in..." She then receded into her statement when she said, "...and with your fancy suits 'n all, you sort of draw a lot of attention. The older ladies in the area talk about you a lot."

As she was holding his gaze, she could feel her heart pounding in her chest.

Was she seriously flirting with this guy?

"Oh...?" he remarked quizzically. "And what do they say?"

"They say you're yakuza."

Her second-hand claim made him stifle a chuckle with his other hand. It was bright and refreshing. She found herself inwardly wanting to hear him laugh a little more.

She also couldn't believe herself.

In all her twenty-two years of living, she had never initiated conversation with the intent of wanting to get to know someone of the opposite sex intimately, yet here she was, talking to a man whom she had expected to have been gone by now, going onto bigger and better things, to places where he could buy more suits like the ones he wore or more cars like the one he drove.

But even someone like him could laugh at a good joke coming from a meek store clerk.

She honestly didn't know what spurred her to initiate a deviated conversation with him, but she was glad she did. Maybe it was his authoritative presence that gave her the dose of courage she needed to break the norm and just...go for it.

Maybe it rubbed off on her.

 _Oh well, no time like the present..._

He bit off the rest of his chuckling and caught his breath, "N-no...no, I'm not a gangster or anything. I swear."

She shuffled in place on the other side of the register curiously, "Do you mind if I ask you what you do then?"

"I'm a musician. More specifically, a pianist."

That caught her off guard. "Really...then you must be a very successful one then."

He shrugged obviously playing off her grandeur compliment. "I get by I suppose. I'm not so successful to where I can't enjoy the simple things."

She laughed timidly. "I see. What other way to enjoy the simple things than to stop in at a small convenient store every once and a while and buy discount melon bread and milk?"

He leaned in a little closer. "Well, where else am I gonna go to see and be greeted by such a beautiful cashier?"

Her breath caught in her throat, but she managed to keep herself composed. She couldn't help but to dart her eyes away from his finding the Kit Kats displayed on the shelf next to her a nice change of scenery. "You're too kind."

"What's your name?"

"Jeanne..." she said quietly.

"It's nice to meet you. Name's Ren."

She forced herself to look back up at him and slightly nodded. "Nice to meet you."

He smiled softly. "Would it be alright if I maybe, took you out to dinner sometime...Jeanne?"

She wasn't too hasty but rather playfully mocked, "I don't know. I could only hope someone like a musician can hold intriguing conversation with a sales associate who managed to move up in the ranks to 'Lead Cashier'."

He smirked admiring her choice words. "I think I can manage."

"Oh, I'll be the judge of that."

"Is that a 'yes' to dinner then?"

She paused again before finally saying, "Yes, I'd like that."

* * *

The exchange of money and numbers went by in what seemed milliseconds. And with that, he was gone, sure to be seen again, only this time, on a Saturday evening in front of her apartment complex where'd be there to pick her up.

Everything still felt like a dream though. Her heart had refused to calm and she was having difficulty processing her current situation. She had little time to deduce it either when the _"Employees Only"_ door behind her came crashing open making her jump slightly in response.

"I saw the whooole thing, Jeanne. Way to go girl. You snagged yourself quite the looker."

She only huffed, casting aside her co-worker's mocking comment. "Anna, you're seriously the worst, listening in on our conversation."

"Yeah, but I had to. If the bastard really was yakuza, you would have needed me then. I would've jumped across that counter and kicked his ass while you called the police."

The two laughed solemnly noticing a few customers had come in while Jeanne filled her friend in on whatever she had missed from her chance encounter. Anna turned to her and said, "Seriously though Jeanne, I hope you have a great time Saturday."

Jeanne couldn't shake her excitement either and admitted quietly, "Yeah, same here. I almost feel a little too excited."

Anna smirked, "Well, who wouldn't be? It's obvious the guy's loaded. You lucked out with him. Must be the red-eyes, silver hair, and slim figure combo. Can't hide that under our uniforms."

"Oh please," Jeanne scoffed jokingly. "You're boyfriend's a descendant of the Asakura Daimyo. He's even more loaded. I could say the same thing."

Her blond-haired friend only shrugged, "Hey, what can I say? I couldn't keep him off me."

They both laughed again trying desperately to evade the prying eyes of the now curious customers to no avail.

* * *

 _ **a/n: this is dedicated to those who aren't too fond of my other story regarding this pair. no, i didn't actually write it for you.**_

 _ **i was going to use this premise as a start to a much deeper story about them to where Jeanne was the heir to a gang and Ren came in and out of the store only to keep watch over her just so she wouldn't be killed.**_

 _ **and to start it off, he'd say something really vague like, "Watch yourself...or else you'll die."**_

 _ **making him look like the bad guy...but not really**_ _ **then it was gonna go into this crazy adventure where the gang Ren's a part is actually remant members of the X Laws and their leader who was her father is dead nowand when she was like, SUUUPER young, he put her up for adoption after her mother died after child birth so she wouldn't have to grow up as the daughter of a mafia boss and the bad guys who killed her father the Asakuraswhich is why the X LAws want to fight the Asakuras in the first place which is why they need Jeanne to be the new bossand it was gonna be this huge gang war between these huge factions or something with Ren, not really being an X Law and Jeanne not really knowing what to doshould she accept her place as the new mafia boss because not all the members of the X Laws are bad peoplesome of them actually want to help people and some are in it to help their struggling familiesand not all the Asakuras are bad because Yoh and Anna's marriage is struggling because Anna doesn't want to be married to a yakuza leader and Yoh knows thathe just wants to be happy with his wife and baby Hana but he can't because he has to be a yakuza boss because he's an Asakura and Hao is his brother and the leader of the yakuza and he can't abandon his brotherand all the feelsand all the action and drama and stuff...**_

 _ **...but i'm lazy.**_

 _ **oh well.**_

 _ **well, i'm busy. this music and the other things i wanna write about are time consuming. like really time consuming. i've had to abandon one story already because of time constraints. i didn't want to start on another one and have to stop.**_

 _ **anywho. hope you liked it. i write little shorts to work on my writing style specifically. feel free to rip it apart and give me some feedback.**_

 _ **-Ru**_


	2. I Trust You

They were sitting in the living room of his home in total silence. She was sitting across from him on one of his family's comfy couches trying desperately not to nod off. They had been there for thirty minutes and the ambiance of his house was slowly rocking her to sleep. The stillness of the room, the slight tapping of his shoes, and the distance birds chirping, it was all too peaceful a moment to pass up. So she found herself drifting off.

She was suddenly awoken however from her twilight by a very familiar scream.

"HOW COULD ONE IN YOUR POSITION BE SO RELAXED AT A TIME LIKE THIS?!"

She took her hands and patted her cheeks to wake herself up and yawned, "...you were the one who told me just yesterday that you had this situation under control and I had nothing to worry about. Don't be mad at me for trying to take a nap. The ride here took forever. I'm sleepy."

He snapped back at her, "This is important. You're acting like you don't care!"

She drew back sarcastically, "Hardly, otherwise, I would have never come if I didn't. You're making quite a lot of assumptions right now. This is so unlike you. You're usually calmer than this."

He recognized her condensing tone, "I _am_ calm, damn it. I would just be calmer if you could a bit more serious."

She gave him a quizzical look, "How paradoxically unkind of you. If we're both being serious, which one of us is going to calm, then?"

"I told you already that I'm calm."

"But then you want me to be serious?"

"Damn it, just _please_ …"

She gave him a cheeky smile, "You're so cute when you're flustered. Have I ever told you that?"

Her remark made him blush slightly and he averted his eyes, "Don't patronize me, woman."

"I'd never, not in a million years," she said playfully as he sat back down in his seat.

She sighed as she stood and walked over to him. He stared at her quizzically and slightly started as she sat next to him, brushing her sleeve against his bare arm.

 _She smells of roses,_ he thought.

She took hold of his hand and looked into his eyes, "It'll be fine. I trust you."

As if the only confirmation he needed was her word, and now, her word was probably all he really needed because they really carried that much authority, he sighed exasperatingly as well, "Alright, fine. I'm...uh, I'm sorry for yelling at you."

She allowed a chuckle to escape her, the grip on his hand tightening, "It's fine. You're always so serious, but it's fine, really." She paused for a moment, a slight blush descending on her pale cheeks. "It's a quality I'm quite fond of, actually."

His heart fluttered for a moment and he found his lips gravitating towards hers without warning.

He had found himself doing this exact thing far too many times as of late.

But she never seemed to mind. This time seemed no different. She felt his shift in movement and wholly began engaging in kissing him back, her eyes fluttering to a close.

Their contact was mere millimeters away when the side door of the living room flung open and out emerged his entire family consisting of his older sister, father, mother, and grandfather, all of them pausing when the pair on the couch stood to face the new guests.

This was what they had been waiting for.

His older sister was the first to speak, eyebrows sharply pointed up in surprise, one that she was witnessing her usually emotionally distant younger brother hesitant and startled, and two, he was holding hands with a young woman.

"Ren..." Jun started. "You...called us here to tell us something urgent?"

He swallowed hard and found the words he had been practicing for months now difficult to muster. Now, when he needed them most, they were so far from his grasp.

He cursed under his breath, confused and angry at himself for being so unsure of himself.

He was reassured however by a squeeze of his hand. He glanced over at her and found that she was looking back with a soft smile.

At that moment, she had looked more fair than she had ever been in the entirety of the time he had come to know her.

It gave him comfort.

It gave him strength.

And that was all he needed.

For he knew.

He cleared his throat, "Family, this is Jeanne. I'm sure you've met her once or heard her name due to past events...I...just wanted to let you all know that...we're getting married." he smiled, the once fleeting confidence returning to him once he heard himself say those sacred words. "I just thought you should know."


	3. The Edge

**_The Edge_**

* * *

 _"You're an asshole, you know that?"_

It was a rhetorical question Ren wasn't ready for.

For two reasons.

One, he was sitting at the kitchen table reading a book and he was paying particular attention to it because the plot had suddenly taken an unexpected twist and his previously passive attention was dashed replaced with aggressive attentiveness and intrigue.

Then he suddenly received a spoon to the forehead from across the room that was launched at an alarming speed. Be it he was more interested in the pages in front of him, he never saw it coming. He was obviously pissed after been given a blow of such magnitude square to the skull, that he was ready to lash out at whoever was the culprit.

But he paused.

Reason two.

The spoon had come from the hand of Jeanne, his wife, who at the time, was visibly angry, ruby eyes blazing and extended throwing hand trembling from her trying to quell her temper, a trait Ren had forgotten she was capable of sometimes because it was such a rare quality she displayed, especially to such a degree to where she was practically boiling.

He had himself to blame for that though. After dating, engagement, and subsequent marriage and raising a child, he began to rub off on her and vise versa. It was a simple matter of being around one another most of the day that she was willing to show her more...verbose emotions.

But the reason why she was so upset was all but lost completely on him. And when his brow furrowed into honest confusion, it only seemed to make her angrier.

Then she spoke it.

"You're an asshole, you know that?"

And she swiveled on her heels and stormed out of the room without another word.

* * *

There should have been a number of things that should've ran through Ren's mind at that moment.

 _Why was she angry?_

 _Was it something I said?_

 _Was it something I didn't say?_

 _Was she talking and I wasn't listening?_

But none of those things were at the forefront of his mind as he recounted the short but informative scene he had just taken part in.

It was the flare in her eyes.

The way her hips swayed when she left the room that his eyes took vivid pictures of and stored in his mind for him to recount over...

...and over.

He felt his heart quicken and he donned a mischievous smile as he closed his book and rose to his feet.

Ren loved Jeanne.

But he had just discovered that he liked it when she was angry with him. It was very...becoming of her.

And he was willing to see if he could try stoking that fire just once more...

...just to see what happens.

He'd worry about the consequences later.


End file.
